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Has Spotify ever made money? It seems strange that all these music streaming services have limped along for years without having a model that makes any money or
by emodendroket 3y ago
Has Spotify ever made money? It seems strange that all these music streaming services have limped along for years without having a model that makes any money or sense. Convenient for the rest of us I suppose.
- Czarcasm 3y agoThey have an operating profit, but they choose to reinvest it all back into the company, thus they don't have an overall profit. They could reduce the amount they are reinvesting into the company at any time in order to produce an overall profit. This is exactly what Amazon did/does. Doesn't mean that they have "limped along"
- emodendroket 3y agoDo they? This would seem to suggest otherwise. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1022122/spotify-operating-income-quarterly/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1022122/spotify-operatin...
- doctorpangloss 3y agoIt's complicated. A lot of money exited from Spotify after its IPO. The rightsholders (Warner, UMG...) got an outsized return on that investment. Smooth it out since then and it looks like a more routine profit. I'm not sure if basic financials are an adequate format for a backcatalogue monetization business.
- moogly 3y agoDaniel Ek and Drake certainly have made money. Smaller artists? Not a chance. They get paid in exposure, which is the #1 rule not to do in the creative arts.
- emodendroket 3y agoI’m not even talking about artists though. Just Spotify the corporate entity.
- moogly 3y agoIndeed. Personally I think it's somewhat perverse how a huge machine operating at a loss can redistribute so much wealth though, to the top, no less. That was sort of my point. Like, I could have an easier time accepting Spotify losing money if it actually enriched the masses that produce the majority of its content, but we all know that's not what it is doing.